Audiotronics 300B battery operated classroom record player

[jsowers]

That certainly is an oddball record player. I started working on AV equipment when I was still in high school in 1975 and then did it full time for a school system for many years after that and I've never seen one of these.

I can see how it would come in handy if the school had an outside event. We had "field day" every May in elementary school and used a battery powered "lecturnette" to announce the winners. That could be done with this unit if you just added a mike. This was also made before the advent of the battery-powered cassette player and a long time before the boom box.

It's funny--the clear stalk where the pilot light would go has no light, for obvious reasons. Too much drain on the battery. I can see this being left on accidentally and draining those batteries. It also looks like battery acid has leaked inside. It doesn't look like it was used very much.

It does look vintage 1966. Many of our Audiotronics record players, bought with ESEA funds (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), were bought in 1966 and dated on the outside "ESEA-1-66" in permanent marker. But none were battery models like this one.

[Electronic M]

Quite an interesting oddity.

Originally Posted by jsowers

This was also made before the advent of the battery-powered cassette player and a long time before the boom box.

The Compact cassette was released in Europe in 1963 and in the USA in 1964. Given it's size I'd imagine battery powered transistor portables were available from the get go.